Messy Church Activity Time Risk Assessment
Activity / Hazards / Who / what is at risk?Person P
Clothes C
Building B
Furniture F / How risky?
High risk H (likely to result in injury, illness or damage if no action taken)
Medium risk M (possible it will result in injury, illness or damage if no action taken)
Low risk L (slight possibility it will result in injury, illness or damage if no action taken) / How we will make it safe
Clear notice on table N
Extra helper EH
Alert parents/carers AP
Barriers B
Ensure hands are washed HW
Do it outside O
Have bucket of water ready W
Supervise sharp blades SSB
Floor and/or table covering FTC
Goggles G
Aprons A / Who will put this into action?
(NOT making them legally responsible!)
Soap carving / Cutting fingers with knife / P / H / N EH AP SSB / Doris
Water bombs / Wet floors: damage to floor and slipping hazard / B P / M / O / Oswald
Notes
This Risk Assessment is intended to be a useful document specific to the activity time in Messy Church. It should help a team consider any risks beforehand and make sure appropriate measures are put in place to make sure both people and property are kept safe. It isn't intended to be used by the kitchen team as cooking has its own discrete set of risks. Needless to say this is offered as a help only and BRF can take no responsibility for any injury or damage resulting from using this form! (Now, did I make out a Risk Assessment about planning Risk Assessments...?)
Activity: write down only the activity you think has a risk involved, not every single one as people will only read the minimum.
Hazards: write down why it could be dangerous
Who/what is at risk?: this form includes damage to property as well as people as teams need to behave responsibly in the buildings we use.
How risky?: These categories are toned down from industrial levels of risk on the grounds that teams are highly unlikely to be even thinking of doing anything that could result in fatality in a Messy Church context. So HIGH H means 'if we don't do anything, it is very likely that this danger will happen'; MEDIUM M means 'if we don't do anything, it may happen' and LOW L means 'if we don't do anything, there's a slight possibility it could happen'. But it's worth exercising common sense about the general use of scissors, paintbrushes and so on that you use every time: you don’t want to write down every time that scissors are a medium risk because of sharp blades or that paintbrushes might result in eyes poked out. If your team needs making aware of this, fill out a permanent form that has general and usual hazards on (think about tripping hazards, sharp blades, hygiene, objects going in eyes, ears, up noses, allergies, fire, wires, loud noises - this list is not exhaustive) and save the one above for specific Messy Church sessions.
How will we make it safe?: Some common measures are included with abbreviations to speed up the form-filling-in, but there will be others too. I didn't want to get too lurid.
Who will put this into action?: Ultimately the parents / carers are responsible for their own children, so this column is not to give legal responsibility to poor Doris but to designate a job and someone to do it.
If you loathe this sort of form, print it off and decorate it before you fill it in. Put the Ritz back into Risk. Use colour, add your own abbreviations, make it yours.